U. S. Science Parks: The Diffusion of an Innovation and Its Effects on the Academic Missions of Universities

                                             

 

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 Nelson (2001) is concerned that commercialization of university research may have a detrimental effect 

on its “public science.”  Stephan (2001) observes that university/industry research partnerships have a 

potential to have a detrimental affect on the university’s basic research curriculum.  This issue is 

discussed in more detail in Poyago-Theotoky, Beath, and Siegel (forthcoming). 

 

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impact on the effect of science parks on the academic missions of universities except on 

publications. 

Fifth, the influence of university-park research interactions may change over the life of 

the interaction.  Over time, the impact that science parks have on academic missions changes.  

Initially, that impact may not influence patenting activity or curriculum, but over time it will.  

Similarly, over time the reputation of the science park will confer a hiring advantage to the 

university, ceteris paribus.

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Reemphasizing the caveats associated with this study, namely that we rely on the 

provosts’ perceptions of effects (rather than time-series data about the effects) and that our 

sample is small, the results in Table 6 may nevertheless be useful for guiding aspects of 

university decision making.  The results may inform the decision making of universities that 

have science parks and are trying to understand the full extent of the university-park relationship.  

Also, the results may inform universities that are contemplating establishing a science park or 

planning one.  We illustrate this with two examples, both focusing on the effect of a university’s 

involvement with a science park on the applied nature of the university’s research curriculum.  

That dimension of curricular focus has gained attention in recent years.  As noted previously, 

Nelson (2001) has warned that as universities take on commercial activities, often in conjunction 

with industry, their commitment to public science may be endangered.  Stephan (2001) as well 

has noted that there is the potential that technology transfer activities — likely to occur from 

university/science park interactions — will divert faculty away from students and curriculum and 

towards commercial activities such as the quest for extramural research funding.  If such funding 

comes from industrial firms, then it is reasonable to be concerned that commercial influences 

will spill over to influence the character of the university’s research and hence its research 

curriculum. 

First, consider a university that has an ongoing relationship with organizations in a 

science park; consider also the ordered probit results presented in Table 6 for the applied 

research curriculum mission of the university.  Ceteris paribus, as rd  increases, there is a 

decrease in the probability of agreement with the mission statement that the university’s research